


betting games

by 8The_Great_Perhaps8



Series: critical role relationship week 2018 [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Critical Role Relationship Week, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 20:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14961695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8The_Great_Perhaps8/pseuds/8The_Great_Perhaps8
Summary: Fjord and Percival meet in a jail cell after they get kidnapped by a cult targeting people who have made deals.





	betting games

“So,” says the older man that Fjord is sharing a cell with, “what got you caught up with this cult?”

Fjord blinks up at the man- this is the first time that he’s spoken since Fjord has gotten thrown in here, and he wasn’t expecting a refined voice from a man who looks like he was just crawling around in a coal mine looking for a black button.

“Uh, well, they said that I made a deal with a devil or somethin’ like that,” Fjord finally says. “I mean, I made a deal with _someone_ , but it weren’t no devil.”

“Huh,” says the older man. “Believe it or not, they accused me of the same.”

“ _Really_ ,” Fjord says. “Mind if I ask why?”

“Ah, I was aiming to get revenge. Rather not go into too much detail, you understand.”

“Of course,” Fjord nods.

“What about you?” The older man asks. “Why your deal?”

Fjord shrugs. “Drownin’. Wanted to live.”

The older man nods. “A completely reasonable reason, honestly. I prefer it to my own.”

Fjord shrugs again. “I’m not gonna judge you for your reasons. It’s a policy of mine.”

“Good policy,” the older man says.

They lapse into silence.

“Well, at the very least, we’ve discovered what’s connecting all the victims,” Fjord finally says, desperate for any conversation.

“All?” The older man asks. “How many have there been?”

“Countin’ us? Around ten or eleven. Me an’ my friends, we’ve been workin’ on what’s goin’ on here for a couple days.”

The old man’s eyes light up. “Ah, an adventuring party, then?”

“Ayuh,” Fjord says. “S’pose you could call it that. Mostly, we get accused of committing crimes and then we prove everybody wrong.”

The old man chuckles. “Yes, I remember that quite well. Matter of fact, my wife and I used to be involved in an adventuring party in Tal’dorei. Not as much now, of course.”

“Tal’dorei?” Fjord asks, curious despite himself. “That’s a ways away. How’d you end up here?”

“We were visiting an old friend in Deastok. One of my friends from my adventuring days has a particular skill that allows for her to transport through trees! So we popped in for a quick visit, and I got kidnapped.”

The older man says it with such nonchalance that Fjord has to do a double take. “That’s a, uh, remarkably calm response to gettin’ kidnapped.”

The older man flaps his hand in the air, as though it’s nothing much. “Honestly, it happens often enough. I’m a lord, so I’m used to it.”

“A _lord_?” Fjord asks, flabbergasted. “I’ve never met a lord before.”

“Ah, we’re nothing special,” the older man says. “My name is Percival Friedrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III. Yourself?”

“Percival……..fred…” Fjord begins, struggling through the dozens of syllables that just came out of the older man’s mouth.

“Call me Percy,” the older man finally says. “Everyone else does.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Percy. My name’s Fjord,” Fjord says, holding out his hand for a shake. Percy obliges, and the two lapse back into silence.

“My wife and my friends are probably on the way,” Percy eventually says. “I pity whomsoever gets in their way.”

“Yeah, my friends are probably comin’ soon, too,” Fjord replies. Jester’s Sending had come through a good fifteen minutes ago, so it was probably time.

“Oh, I’m sure they will! Just not before my wife and my friends get here,” Percy says, smiling.

“Hm. Well, if you insist, old man. But all my friends are young, spry, and intelligent. Plus, there’s more of them.”

“Did you just call me old man?” Percy asks, sounding affronted. “When my wife gets here with her bear, she’ll show you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Fjord asks. “When _my_ friends get here, with a fae cat and a man who can make people’s eyes bleed out, they’ll show you.”

“Oh, _yeah_?” Percy asks.

“Yeah!” Fjord retorts.

“How about a little wager then, kiddo? Whosever rescuing party shows up first owes the other five hundred gold,” Percy says, sounding smug.

Fjord spits. “Five _hundred_?”

Percy rolls his eyes. “Fifty, then. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds like I’m gonna be fifty gold richer in about ten minutes,” Fjord replies.

“Oh, you’re on, young’n.”

“Young’n?” Fjord asks.

“If I can get called old man, I can call you young’n,” Percy declares. “I can call you whatever I want, actually, seeing as how I’m about to win fifty gold off of you.”

“You’re not about to win _shit_ off of me, old man.”

They keep on like that for the next twenty-ish minutes, ragging on each other and talking up their respective would-be rescuers.

After about twenty minutes, a sudden explosion shakes the building above them.

“Taryon,” Percy says.

“Caleb,” Fjord refutes.

They hear many more shouts coming from the building above them. They hear the distinctive sound of blades flying into someone’s chest-

(“Vex,” Percy says.

“Beau,” Fjord replies.)

After five more minutes of fighting sounds, the door to the dungeon flies open. Fjord leans over in the cell to look for it, and sees an enormous lollipop.

“I win,” he crows.

“How would you know? That’s just a lollipop, Fjord,” Percival says.

“No, _that’s_ the most impressive cleric that I know of,” Fjord says.

“Fjord, are you okay?” Jester shouts, proving his point. “Are you down there, actually? Or, um, are you somewhere else?”

“Jester! Over here!” Fjord shouts.

“Oh, he’s not unconscious,” Jester says aside.

“You wanna yell for yours?” He hears Beau ask.

“Percy?” An unfamiliar woman calls out. “Darling, are you alright?”

“Vex’ahlia!” Percival shouts. “Come quick, darling!”

Percival hears a group of people tumble down the stairs to the dungeon, all moving fast.

Beau and a bear slam into the bars of the door at the same time. “You alright, Fjord?”

“I’m fine. I’m fifty gold richer, actually,” Fjord says, smirking at Percy.

“Bull- _shit_ you are,” Percival says. “I know that bear.”

“Yeah? Who’s that bear?” Fjord challenges.

“That bear is Trinket, and he’s my wife’s first child.”

Beau and Fjord stare at Percy in a kind of strange, disgusted confusion.

“Oh, like neither of you have ever had a pet,” he says, flapping his hand in his strange way.

“Percy, are you okay?” A redheaded woman asks, as Nott begins going to work on the cell’s lock.

“Oh, I’m fine. I just won fifty gold,” Percy reassures her, as he stands up.

“Beau got here first,” Fjord argues, as he also rises.

“What bet?” Caleb asks, rubbing his head and looking exactly as confused as the redheaded woman sounds.

“Oh, we bet fifty gold on whose rescuers would get here first,” Percy explains. “And I won, thanks to Trinket.”

“ _I_ won, thanks to Beau,” Fjord argues.

“You both won, because you both lived,” Mollymauk declares, and the blond man nods.

“Nah. Fjord won, because I outran the bear,” Beau retorts.

“ _Percival_ won, because Trinket can’t be outran by anybody,” the dark-haired woman argues.

“Fjord won, because Beau is a lot less smelly than the bear,” Jester declares.

“Why don’t you both trade fifty gold, so that we can say you both won?” Nott asks as she creaks the door open.

Fjord snorts. “With you around, I wouldn’t exchange a handshake with Percival,” he says, as he walks through the door, with Percival following behind him.

They keep on in that vein as they all exit the complex, with the Mighty Nein and Percival’s companions jumping in on occasion to ‘help’ with the argument, which continues all the way to the inn, and then, all through dinner, and it then picks back up again the next day.

It’s all a load of nonsense, which means that it obviously gets brought up every single time that Fjord and Percival run into each other from then on, even after Nott’s probably stolen about three hundred gold from Fjord.

It’s part of the fun.


End file.
